Cech hails “brilliant” Manchester City after successive 3-0 defeats

Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech has hailed what he described as a “brilliant” Manchester City side following the Gunners second 3-0 defeat to the Sky Blues in a week.

Arsene Wenger’s men were humbled by three-to-nothing in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday afternoon thanks to goals from Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva.

And things didn’t improve when they met on Thursday night in the Premier League. This time around it was Bernardo Silva, David Silva (again) and Leroy Sane who did the damage to secure another brilliant 3-0 win for the Manchester side and cap off a more-than-miserable week for the Gunners.

And after what was effectively a 6-0 drubbing over two legs, rather than focus on the negatives, Arsenal keeper Petr Cech has instead held his hands up – admitting his side were simply beaten by the better team.

Reflecting on Thursday night’s repeat result, Cech said: “I think in the first half we were much better organised than at Wembley. I thought that when we had the ball, we had intention to play and put them under pressure.

“We were more aggressive but I have to say that in the first half we were beaten by a brilliant team with individual quality and obviously with confidence.

I think that in the first half that was the big difference because when they scored the first goal, I thought they took a lot of confidence out of us and we took some time to get out of it. They carried on and they scored another two goals.

He continued: “When you are going through difficult moments you take a little thought more than you should and you do probably little things with less speed than a player in confidence. I think that was probably the case.

“It was their individual and team brilliance and the confidence as a team. At the moment they are flying high and you can see that.”